As heard from the industry sources, Sony is working on introducing a 5 inch quad core based mid range device, to its collection of smartphones.
Sony is pushing from entry level devices to mid range devices, especially after the success of Xperia Z, their flagship model. Currently, Xperia Z is being the top seller since its release on February 9th and is short of availability in some parts of the world. The success of the device particularly comes from the fact that the device is water resistant and is best in class.
According to the sources, Sony intends to use the MediaTek MT6589 SoC instead of Qualcomm. The MT chip supports 4 Cortex-A7 cores. This has come to no surprise as Sony wants to enhance the build quality of their smartphones. As we have seen with the waterproof Xperia Z specs, what Sony plans to bring in the market.
Sony dwelling into the mid range models is further accompanied by two recent models announced by Sony – Xperia L and Xperia SP in Taiwan that will go on sale from Q2, 2013.
The sources also said that the new 5 inch device contract will be given to Arima. Arima is also working with Sony for Xperia E smartphones. Sony has also signed up an agreement with Compal Communications and Foxconn and plans to manufacture about 8 to 10 million devices this year. There is no other information about the specs of the mobile phone except for the 5 inch display.
Sony’s move to bring a 5 inch device comes to no surprise as more mobile phone manufacturers are coming in the phablet category. Samsung’s Galaxy Note series is one of the successful phablet phone series with 5 inch displays. Even the new Galaxy S4 has display closer to 5 inch. The success level of such devices is pretty high considering they do not usually fit in a normal hand.
It is expected that Sony will release this device later this year but there is no specific date given of the actual arrival of the smartphone. We think that it would be a perfect time for Sony to introduce this mid range device near the end of Holidays as then it would give more competition to expected Apple iPhone 5S.
vicky says
Sony was missing out on the phablet war and now the 5 inch smartphone from Sony will give competition to the other phablets in the market. Waiting for its launch eagerly to see what Sony has in store for us.